ALBO IN BIDEN’S HOMETOWN
US President Joe Biden has invited Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, later this month. The AAP reports Biden will host a Quad summit involving Albanese, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 21.
“This will be President Biden’s first time hosting foreign leaders in Wilmington as president — a reflection of his deep personal relationships with each of the Quad leaders, and the importance of the Quad to all of our countries,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said. The summit will be the fourth in-person meeting of Quad leaders.
The announcement overnight follows the Albanese government striking a deal with the Coalition to reform aged care. Most publications led on Thursday evening with positive responses to the long-awaited reforms. The Australian quotes Patricia Sparrow, chief executive of the Council on the Ageing, as saying the government’s focus on home care support is “very welcomed”, while Aged and Community Care Providers Association chief executive Tom Symondson stated both parties had “put older Australians and the future of aged care above party politics”.
Older Persons Advocacy Network CEO Craig Gear is quoted by the ABC as saying the reforms had the potential to “create a financially sustainable aged care system for future generations”. Meanwhile, the AAP carries quotes from him expressing his disappointment that criminal penalties for serious harm and neglect were not included in the final legislation.
The Australian said the Coalition had given its in-principle support after an emergency partyroom meeting yesterday that included “one of the longest speaking lists” many MPs had seen.
Fresh off negotiations with the opposition over the aged care reforms, Albanese is also making headlines this morning for his reported preference to strike a deal with the Coalition rather than the Greens on the government’s stalled environmental agenda, Guardian Australia reports.
As Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek continues talks with the Greens, crossbenchers and the opposition over plans to create an Environment Protection Authority, the PM has apparently “indicated to various parties in the negotiations that he wants a deal struck with the Coalition”. The site said Albanese appears prepared to wait and has prioritised other legislation.
LABOR SEAT DISAGREEMENT
As Albanese enjoys the initial coverage of the aged care reforms and plans his trip to America next week, Guardian Australia also reports the PM may have to intervene and decide who will run in the safe Labor seat of Gorton following a disagreement between Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and the Australian Workers’ Union.
Marles is backing Alice Jordan-Baird, a climate change and water policy expert, while the AWU (Bill Shorten’s old union) is backing Brimbank mayor Ranka Rasic in Brendan O’Connor’s old seat.
Guardian Australia said nominations for Labor’s Victorian seats closed yesterday ahead of a national executive meeting today, and neither candidate had intended to withdraw. Shorten’s seat of Maribyrnong will be contested by the Left’s Jo Briskey, the site adds.
Elsewhere in Victoria, the Land Forces weapons expo is set to conclude in Melbourne today with “significant protest activity” expected, the AAP reports.
“There will be renewed vigour to protest because it’s the last day,” rally organiser Caroline Da Silva is quoted as saying. “It’s our last chance to show these weapons companies that they’re not welcome here.”
On Wednesday, the opening day of the expo, 42 people were arrested following “violence and chaos”, the AAP said, as police clashed with demonstrators.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
“Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do. But from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world,” tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman remarked as he stepped out for the first private spacewalk on Thursday.
The billionaire, who financed the five-day space flight with Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, has become the first non-professional astronaut to walk in space, the BBC reports. He was followed by mission specialist Sarah Gillis. Both spent around 15 minutes outside the spacecraft.
The Press Association said the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, “erupted in cheers and applause” when Isaacman first left the Polaris Dawn spacecraft for his spacewalk.
All four members of the Polaris Dawn were wearing and testing SpaceX’s new spacewalking suits on the mission.
Pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet and mission specialist and medical officer Anna Menon missed out on the fun and stayed inside during the spacewalks to monitor the support systems, PA said.
Say What?
A hug? Why not!
King Charles III
New Zealand’s women’s rugby union team managed to get a group hug with the British monarch on Wednesday. The Black Ferns were at a Buckingham Palace reception when winger Ayesha Leti-I’iga asked for a hug and, upon getting the green light, was joined by her teammates. King Charles later said “it was like being flattened by a scrum”. The 75-year-old and Queen Camilla are set to visit Australia next month.
CRIKEY RECAP
Fox Sports’ cricket boss Matthew Weiss viciously attacked the Australian men’s cricket team, Cricket Australia and members of the media — including one journalist who had previously filed bullying complaints against Weiss’ close Foxtel colleague — in newly unearthed posts on X, formerly Twitter.
Last month, Crikey published an investigation revealing that Fox Cricket’s general manager had secretly run an abusive account, @RealRagingBull, for six years that abused colleagues, rivals and other high-profile individuals, while also posting inappropriate content.
While Weiss has since told people he was hacked, posts made from his anonymous account and another account using his real name show a pattern of behaviour over the years towards colleagues and stakeholders that was known at Foxtel and Cricket Australia.
It’s clear he irks the prime minister, to whom he is often compared. Headlines describe him as “getting under Anthony Albanese’s skin” or “troubling Albanese to the Max”, while Albo has been reported as “losing his cool” during their regular question time clashes.
He rankles sections of the media, who often describe him as an “upstart”. His speech at last month’s CFMEU protests saw one correspondent label him an “attack puppy”, as opposed to the more respectable “attack dog”.
He even annoys some who agree with him, with his bolshie style coming off as obnoxious.
When I ask him why people find him so annoying, Chandler-Mather, who quit the Labor Party when he was 21, has a ready answer.
Sneesby will finish up on September 30. Nine’s chief finance and strategy officer Matt Stanton will step in as acting CEO the following day, while the company begins recruitment to fill the role.
Nine staffers, speaking to Crikey, said editorial staff were relieved about Sneesby’s resignation.
“Can’t say I’ll miss him,” one staffer said, adding that the executive had stayed in “palatial accommodation” for the Paris Olympics “while his employees went on strike for basic pay increases and were made redundant”.
Another described it as a “great morning”.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Harvey Weinstein indicted on additional sex crimes charges ahead of New York retrial (Associated Press)
Entire Earth vibrated for nine days after climate-triggered mega-tsunami (The Guardian)
Russia counterattacks against Ukraine in Kursk border region (CNN)
Jon Bon Jovi praised for talking woman off bridge (BBC)
UK police and crime minister’s purse stolen at police conference (The Financial Times) ($)
The no.1 breaker in the world is … Raygun? (The New York Times) ($)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Labor wasn’t having a great week — until Albanese stepped into his courtyard like a man who remembered he had options — Brett Worthington (ABC): As the week dragged on, it was starting to look as if passing Labor’s legislative agenda through Parliament was all becoming too hard.
Until Albanese popped out into his courtyard this afternoon, flanked by Aged Care Minister Anika Wells and Treasurer Jim Chalmers, to announce Labor had landed a long-anticipated deal with the Coalition that will see older Australians pay more for their residential care.
The changes will save government coffers billions, as people entering care pay larger means-tested contributions, in return for greater at-home care for others.
The deal provided a parliamentary week-ending sweetener for a government having to reassess the fights it’s willing to pick with an election now firmly within sights.
Chalmers, having lambasted the Coalition at the collapse of talks to make changes to the RBA, ended the week following through on his threat to negotiate with the Greens, a crossbench party that has repeatedly said its door remained open.
Finally, politicians reach a reform deal worthy of the title — Phillip Coorey (AFR): As Chalmers said, aged care will remain a top five impost on the budget, along with the NDIS, defence, health and interest payments on debt.
But the growth rate will slow from 5.7% to 5.2% over the next decade and, as a share of GDP, aged care will moderate from 1.5% to 1.4%, “even with more people in the system and a higher standard of care at the same time”.
Reform is a word too easily bandied about these days, but this is worthy of the moniker, even if it required boomers being used as the Trojan Horse.
